Medical Mask Purchasing, Risk Control Series No.3 – Verification of Company Reputation, Safe to Do Business?

From our series articles to reduce the risk of medical mask purchasing, we recommend you to verify its medical device registration number and demonstrate how, also we shared that mask testing report is not equal to the quality of the masks, you can read these two articles:

In the No.2 post, we said that instead of relying on the testing report, a supplier’s reputation should be a much important factor you need to consider and validate before you confirm the mask buying order with them and make the payment. This article will be the NO.3 and the end of this series.

Let’s begin.

Check a company’s legitimacy and authenticity

1. Business License: In China, you can ask the supplier to send you the Business license as shown below:

You can read the Business License Code, the Company Name, Foundation Time, And Business scope, and etc.

You might need some translation service, you can go to Fiverr and find someone to translate for you.

2. Online Verification: Go to https://www.tianyancha.com/, type in the supplier’s name, and click the blue search button.

To translate Chinese to English, you can use the lingocloud Chrome plugin, once you installed the plugin, enter the website, and then click.

Then you will sight the exact same information listed on the Business License Image the supplier sends you.

Methods listed above might be a bit difficult for most of you since the information you get are all Chinese, we suggest you find someone who knows Chinese to assist you, either on Fiverr or from your friends.

3. Government Reputation

In China, there is a certification called National high-tech enterprises which can indicate a manufacturer’s reputation, since only the manufacturer can apply and be certificated, the certification image like this:

The product name should also be the same as the Business License.

4. ISO 9001 Certificated By Big Names

ISO 9001 is the international standard for a quality management system (“QMS”).  In order to be certified to the ISO 9001 standard, a company must follow the requirements set forth in the ISO 9001 Standard. The standard is used by organizations to demonstrate their ability to consistently provide products and services that meet customer and regulatory requirements and to demonstrate continuously, so there is no difference between ISO 9001, while the company who do the certification matters, i.e. the more credibility a company that does certification, the more credibility your credentials will have.

For example, ISO 9001 Certificated By SGS will prove that the company is qualified for its Quality Management System since you can not just pay SGS and get the certification, your company must be qualified.

5. Check their website

• Are they a website built recently?

Go to whois.domaintools.com

Put their domain in, and search.

Check the dates, you will see:

• How many days they have been in their business?
• Any updates recently?

• What about their content?  

Is it a well-maintained and updated site with a lot of useful content, or is it just a site full of marketing and no substantive useful content.

Others?

Yes, talk to them directly, video talk is better than email communications, seeing is believing, ask them any questions, the trusted supplier won’t be afraid of telling the truth, they are always there to answer your questions, to provide you solutions.

Details sometimes will tell you the insight, do pay attention to the details.

By far, we had written 3 articles focusing on reducing the risk of buying medical face masks, we hope you find it useful, we wish everyone can participate in this epidemic fighting battle, together we will win the war, best regards to all.